Cooking for a Camping Trip - Results!

So this post is for all of those people who are wondering how our cooking adventures turned out.

Wednesday night when we arrived and set up camp, we were super tired and I wasn't particularly hungry. But Carol saw that this might be exhaustion and altitude speaking, so managed to provide fish tacos for our group that a neighboring camp was giving out. They were delicious, and came with potentially bottomless margaritas.

Thursday night, Carol fired up the camp stove and heated up a pan of water and pulled the bags of food out of the cooler. Does meal prep get much easier?

Chili and Cornbread

The chili was delicious and the rewarming process (Ziplock heated in a pan of simmering water) went perfectly. It could have used a bit more spice, but it really hit the spot and the contrast between the zucchini and the ground beef was good. Sour cream turned out to be one of the things that sounds really really good in the dessert, so the leftovers we didn't eat in the chili, we ate with salsa and corn chips.

The cornbread didn't fare as well. Being cooked, left for two days, frozen, unthawed, it was pretty dry. I think saltines or oyster crackers, or even corn chips, would have been better for this particular situation, should I ever find myself camping in the desert again.

Meatballs, Polenta, and Broccoli

Friday I pulled the tomato sauce with meat out of the cooler and we warmed it all up. It was hard to get the whole package warmed evenly, so the insides of the meatballs were still pretty cold and a big dry as well. The polenta suffered the same fate as the cornbread, where it was a dry but non-essential part of the whole process. Saying that, I think that having two nights of tomato-based dishes in a row was just fine. My body wanted acidic foods.

The broccoli was delicious to some, but I thought it smelled really strongly. I think the roasting and freezing concentrated the hydrogen sulfide chemicals that cruciferous vegetables produce, and made it a bit overwhelming for my taste.

East African Chicken

The chicken held up the best, I think, of all the meals. It was savory and filling, and the couscous mix was unexpectedly awesome. It did seem a bit underspiced, which speaks to the ways that the altitude/dryness sorta saps your tastebuds. If I did it again, I might include a side of lemon pickle.

Mjadra and Chard

This was the best thing we ate out there. The chard was EXACTLY what I needed to be eating, and the cooking method worked equally well for both of these. The Mjadra was spiced evenly and ended up sorta sweet and savory and very very comforting.

So to sum up, I would totally use this form of cooking again on my next camping trip. I would skip the cooked carbs and go with dry goods like chips or crackers. I would also skip the broccoli and just make extra chard or mix it up with some kale instead.

Cooking for a Camping Trip

This past Sunday, I spent the day grocery shopping and cooking with Carol to prepare for a car camping trip we're taking. The idea is that we'd make 4 meals (each for 4 people) in advance, and freeze them into single-serving size ziploc bags. When dinner time rolls around, we'd heat a pot of water on the camp stove and add the bags to the water until the food was warmed. I've never tried this method of reheating before, so I thought I'd document this on the blog and come back after the trip to report on how each recipe fared.

Chili and Cornbread

For this we used a mashup of the recipe for Chili Con Carne out of the Spice Bible and the Vegetable Chili out of The New Basics. It had ground beef, onions, red peppers, kidney beans,and zucchini in it, and the mildly surprising addition of oregano and thyme to the spices. It came out wonderfully spiced, even before we added salt, which upped it's punch a bit more. More savory and aromatic than up-and-at-em-spicy, and should go very well with the Smitten Kitchen Aleppo Cornbread recipe.

MJADRA (Lentil Pottage) with a side of Chard with Olive Oil, Garlic, and a splash of White Basalmic, sauteed up in a big wok. This is huge favorite of mine that my college roommate taught me how to make. Her family's been making it for years, and despite it being a very healthy dish, they joke that it's so good it's the lentil pottage that Esau sold his birthright for.

We plan to serve this with pita bread, and dates for desert. In the dessert. Or vice versa.

Meatballs, Polenta, and Broccoli

This is also a mashup of several recipes that we're both made before. The meatballs were out of Joy of Cooking and my recollection of how my mom makes them. Ground beef with onion powder, breadcrumbs, tomato paste, and an egg, rolled into balls and coated with flour before being pan fried. then added to a lovely tomato sauce with red bell pepper, zucchini, and lots of garlic. Then we pan fried some polenta in olive oil. It didn't get as golden as I hoped, but will be quite tasty and not as soggy as frozen pasta would be. We packaged the sauce and meatballs together, the polenta separately, and the broccoli separately. Again, I'm not sure how the broccoli will reheat after being frozen, but I do know that it being "the best broccoli of your life" that I won't mind.

So that's two tomato heavy dishes, a lentil-spiced dish. What is the last surprise we have for the trip?

East African Chicken

I used to have this recipe posted online, but I think my account ate it. But I have made it dozens of times, and this was perhaps the best time of them all. This is a recipe from Cooking Light in 2003 or so. It is best made with a sweet curry, and this time we used apricots instead of raisins. And I put twice the needed ginger in it, because ginger saves. We also made a couscous mix to go with it, amped up with orzo, split garbanzos, red quinoa, and a bit of saffron.

The other thing I wanted to remark on is how wonderful it is to cook with Carol. We had a pretty easy-going time in the kitchen, where we both slipped into complementary roles. I found myself mostly doing sous-chef tasks, which I really do enjoy, while she kept the timetable and orchestration of the main dishes. It took us somewhere between four and six hours to do all the cooking, with a grocery trip at the end while the food cooled enough to package into bags and freeze.

I'm thinking about this partnership in part because I am teaching a series of cooking classes this fall for a friend of mine, and I want to see what I can do to be hands-off so she learns, while keeping the tasks from being overwhelming and stressful for her. We'll see. I'm very excited about those upcoming plans and will likely post the results here. Possibly with pictures.

Red Chard with Almonds and Cranberries

Just a quick post of more delicious leafy greens recipes. This was made up for lunch today and hardly needs a recipe, but is beautiful and easy:

1 TBSP walnut oil (or some other, slightly less delicious oil)

1 bunch red chard, chopped

1/4 cup slivered almonds

2TBSP dried cranberries

Heat oil in skillet on medium high, add chard, saute until wilted, add almonds and cranberries. Saute another 5 minutes to blend.

I put this in my bento box with a string cheese stick and 5 fresh figs for lunch.

Spicy Chard and Grits with Beans

or Spicy Chard and Beans with Grits

or Chipotle Braised Chard, Heirloom Beans Nestled Gently on a Bed of Polenta

Let's not start the Grits vs. Polenta debate, ok? I came by this recipe from Marisa, who got it from Running With Tweezers. I made a couple modifications, but the basic recipe you might like to follow is here:

http://www.runningwithtweezers.com/chipotle-greens-buttermilk-grits/

I have to say, BUY THE CHIPOTLE. It makes a huge, tasty difference. And now I have extra chipotle in adobo sauce in my fridge waiting for me to make some sweet potato chili. (As soon as I buy more sweet potatoes, that is.)

This is a recipe I have in my delicious feed, under Pantry, Greens, because I felt like I needed a number of weeknight recipes that called for items I was likely to have on hand. The only perishable is the Rainbow Chard (instead of Kale) and my new policy is to buy at least 1 bunch of chard every week, so I can make any of these recipes.

Anyway, the Chard instead of the Kale is the first substitution I made. I also used 2% milk instead of buttermilk. I did not use the shallot, and while I considered a 1/4 onion instead, I just omitted them both. It does not suffer from this, at all. There is plenty of flavor. I also added a can of kidney beans (not called for originally) and they do give it an extra heartiness, which is what I want from this when it's the main dish instead of a side. And finally, near the end, I added 1/4 cup of jarred BBQ sauce to the beans and chard. Heaven on a plate.

So first I chopped up 1 bunch of kale, and added it to a skillet with 1 TBSP olive oil. Wilt those guys, and chop up 2-3 of the chili peppers, open the cans of tomatoes and beans. When they're a bit wilted down, add the chilis and tomatoes, and saute for about 8 minutes. Meantime, bring the 2 cups milk and 2 cups water to a boil. When it boils, add the cornmeal, and stir it briskly to avoid clumps. Don't be like me, who dumped the cornmeal into the pan, and then turned around to get a spoon to stir it. Be vigilant!

Now, check on the greens and tomatoes. Are they bubbling nicely? Then it's time to add the beans and the BBQ sauce. The sauce will seem thick at first, but will lighten as it warms up.

At this point, let the greens bubble, and devote all your attention to the grits/polenta. You should be stirring pretty constantly, until the mixture goes from a runny soup, to something more substatial.

And then, when the mixture starts making little ploop-hiss noises as pockets of steam fight their way to the surfact, then my dears, you add the butter (about 20 minutes total cooking time).

You should also add some salt and pepper to taste. I added about 1/4 tsp of salt and just two twists of the pepper mill.

And that's it, boys and girls. It is spicy, sweet, savory, and the polenta sticks to your ribs. If I were running a restaurant, say a Californian cuisine place in Barcelona, I would definitely put this on the menu. No foodgasms tonight, but the minute I put my fork down I realized I was totally full.

Simple Pleasures

Sometimes it's the simple pleasures in life.

Last night I picked up some steaks (grass-fed boneless rib eyes). We sliced up some sweet potatoes and red potatoes and oven roasted them with lots of olive oil and salt. Don't skimp on salt where potatoes are concerned.

Nick pan seared the steaks and made a shallot wine-reduction sauce to go over them.

And that's it! Ready in under an hour. Decadent. Lovely.

Guest Blogger - Catharine and her Pasta Sauce

Hello there gentle readers,

My name is Catharine, and I'm doing some guest blogging on Something Tasty because it beats starting my own blog, in this harsh era of push-button publishing.

So there has been a great deal of cooking already this week Chez Catharine, and I wanted to tell you all about it. On Sunday I decided I wanted to make a great deal of food and drink wine at my house, so I invited over 8 friends and we had a delightful evening.

First, I made the pasta sauce of excessive simplicity. Canned tomatoes. 1/4 cup butter. 1/2 onion. Simmer 45 minutes. Yes. That is the glory.

Do you see it? Do you see it oooze with succulent tangy tomato and velvety butter? Can you think of any way to make this better?

Part 1: What if you made LASAGNA from it? Would you just die?

Stay with me. Here we go. Take a cup of this delightful sauce. Spoon it in the bottom of a small 8x11 cake pan (or lasagna pan, as my mom calls it). Insert 3 Barilla no-boil lasagna noodles. Consider what you've done while you sautee the vegetables.

Put some butter in a skillet. Add 1/2 sliced onion, 1 sliced bell pepper, 2 small (or 1 large) sliced zucchini, and a small container of presliced mushrooms. Sautee those bad boys up. While you're doing that, mix an egg in a bowl (you can use two if you like) add 15 oz whole milk ricotta cheese, 1/4 cup shredded parm, 1 cup shredded mozzarella. After that's mixed up, dollup a third of it into the pan on top of the noodles, and smooth it in place. Finish sauteeing the vegetables, and put half of them on top of the cheese. Layer 3 more noodles, 1 cup more sauce, 1/3 of the ricotta. Layer 1 cup more sauce, 3 more noodles, the rest of the ricotta, and the rest of the vegetables. Add 1 cup sauce to this, layer 3 more noodles, cover that in 1 more cup of sauce, and then put 2-3 cups of cheese on top.

(Or Barilla has a great recipe on the back of the box - it will be more accurate than the above, and you just substitute the veggies for the ground beef.)

OMG. Bake this in the oven. Rejoice that you don't need to boil noodles FIRST and then put them in the pan, like my foremothers. Also, give thanks for the emergence of Italian-American cuisine.

If you're my friends, and you're training to ride to LA from San Francisco on a bicycle (they're crazy, folks. Plum crazy. But cute. And you can donate to help them here: ALC Site) then you are hungry. And a protein addict. So in addition to the pasta, these lovely people brought over 4 lbs of salmon! And taught me how to poach it.

Part 2: Poach Some Salmon, You'll Thank Me on that 500 Mile Bike Ride Later

First, spread out the fish on your very large kitchen counter. Don't have one? Consider investing in a small dock, or pier. Possibly a small (unused) landing strip, like they have at Crissy Field. Sprinkle salt, pepper, and dried thyme over the fish. Get your largest saute pan, and add some olive oil, like 2 tbsps. Turn on medium heat and add 4-5 cross sections of lemon (about 1/2 inch slices) to the bottom of the pan. Put the fish, skin side down, on top of them like a little raft. Add some white wine, like 3 tbsps, or a 1/4 cup or so. You know, less than would be polite to pour in someones' wine glass. Some.

Oh, do you have a lid for your very large sautee pan? You better! Because the next step is to poach the fish with the lid on (low heat, please) for 4-8 minutes, depending on how immense the fillet is You should let it stop cooking before it is done, and it will be slippery and moist and velvety. Serve the lasagna and the fish together, with a greek salad (not pictured).

(apologies to the lasagna, which did not get good screen time above)

Part 3: Slapdash Greek Salad

For the greek salad, chop up some lettuce, right? Add a very large sliced herloom tomato, a peeled and sliced cucumber, about 8 oz of kalamata olives in brine, about 2 tbsp of bring, a container of marinated feta (4-6 oz), salt, pepper, 3 tbps of olive oil, and 1 teaspoon of Sumac powder.

For those without an open account with Penzie's spices, Sumac Powder is Sumac Berries, a sour, purple fruit that is surprisingly good as a spice on meats, cheese, and in salad dressing. That, and those tiny purple pickled vegetables on the hummus plate are my two favorite things at good Middle Eastern restaurants.

Part 4: Two days later

So after that orgy of food (yes, just food) I had fish and lasagna leftovers for two whole days before starting to cook again. This time I wanted to make Spaghetti and Meatballs.

I started with 1lb of ground buffalo. Yes, buffalo. And no, this isn't Half Pint Ingalls talking, you can buy buffalo at whole foods. It's apparently healthier for you than ground cow. In addition, you can worry less about the abuse your domesticated cow friends face in the CAFOs.

Plus, it's lower fat, which is good, because, my friends, we are going to fucking fry these suckers.

Take the ground buffalo and put it in a bowl with 1 egg, 1/2 cup breadcrumbs, salt, pepper, granulated garlic or garlic powder, and a tich of your favorite seasoning. Mix it up using your hands (washed). Get a cup of water and wet your hands, and roll the mixture into little meatballs. Yeah, keep going. It's tedious but worth it. Then wash your hands thoroughly, and observe other foodsafety tips. #PSA

Heat 1/4 cup of olive oil in a saucepan, like medium high heat. (Who am I kidding? Ever recipe I make starts with "Turn burner on, as high as it can go." Impatient much?) When the oil gets hot but not smoking hot, turn it to medium and add in the meatballs. I like to use tongs or my prosthetic lobster claws, but it needs a delicate touch to avoid mushing the meatballs.

Let them sit there in the hot hot oil for about 4 minutes, and then start rolling them so mostly all of the sides get browned. (Rolling them so ALL the sides get browned is a mathematical impossibility due to the nature of a sphere. Or so goes the conjecture.) About 8 minutes should do it, maybe less. Err on the side of underdone, because there is more cooking to come and you don't want them to get dry.

Then, remove them from the pan to a plate, and drain the oil from the pan. Where you put it is your concern, but I recommend against the sink. Add the meatballs back into the pan, put the heat at medium low, and add the tomato sauce from Act 1. Because hopefully, you doubled the recipe when you made it, because oh my god it's that good.

Now boil some salty water and add the fresh fettucini that you got at the store because you were worried that Lasagna, Greek Salad, fish, and ice cream wouldn't be enough for dinner on Sunday.

Silly girl.

Cook the pasta for 4 minutes and the meatballs and sauce until they are hot.

And then drain the pasta, put it in a bowl, heap it up with meatballs and sauce, and add some shredded parmesan.

I kid you not, this was so fucking good that I had a foodgasm at the table. The meatballs were moist and had a great mouthfeel, the pasta was begging to be slurped, the sauce was sour and sweet and the bite of the almost melted cheese was just fantastic. It was a meal of textures as well as flavors, and was the perfect nourishing meal for a weekday night.

And then I drank some red wine, and considered how amazing my life is.

Finale: Shoulders of Giants
1. Smitten Kitchen gets mad props for introducing me to the Magic Tomato Sauce.

2. Darrin gets points for teaching me that poaching fish isn't yucky.

3. Sumac Berries. Try them!

So that's two things to do with the perfect tomato sauce. Well, you can also eat it. That's my favorite part.